Ideas and methods for attracting new users of APP

In the user growth methodology, there are many user growth models. For example, the AARRR model is currently used more frequently, and there is also the user life cycle model and so on. Regardless of the model, the first step in user growth is to attract new users. Today I’d like to share some ideas and methods for acquiring new users.

01. Project Background

When it comes to attracting new users, everyone is familiar with it.

However, different industries and entities face quite different scenarios for attracting new customers. For example, when it comes to attracting new users on a platform (such as Taobao), the focus is on how to convert more potential users into Taobao users; the category operators in Taobao are focused on how to convert more users into users of the category I am responsible for; and the merchants on the platform are focused on how to convert more users into users of my store.

Different people have different perspectives, and what they want to achieve in terms of “attracting new customers” is actually quite different.

The scenario we will mainly share today is taking the e-commerce platform as an example to see how brands or sellers on the platform can attract new customers.

02. New customer acquisition direction and market analysis

Currently, most of the articles on the market about attracting new customers are centered around channels and methods for attracting new customers. In fact, before actually performing operations related to attracting new customers, you should first clearly understand the specific direction of attracting new customers.

1) Specific direction of attracting new customers

For a brand on an e-commerce platform (let’s take Xiaomi as an example), the main directions for attracting new customers include:

• Brand user migration : This is the conversion channel closest to brand users. That is, to migrate purchasing users from other categories under the same brand to the purchase of the target product. For example, if you want to attract new users of Xiaomi mobile phones, you can get them from users who purchase Xiaomi home appliances. Users of the same brand already have recognition of the brand, so migration to related categories is relatively easy.
• Competing for old customers of competitors : When users of your own brand cannot be migrated or there is not much room for migration, you can consider competing for old customers of competitors. Competitive product users have demand for this product category, and this brand can leverage its own brand advantages to complete the migration of competitive product users.
• Intercepting new customers in the category : When old customers of competing products are difficult to migrate, or when the consumer durables industry causes users’ repurchase cycle to be too long, you can focus on intercepting new customers in the category. That is, users who purchase products of this category on the e-commerce platform for the first time.
• Cross-category new customer acquisition: Cross-category new customer acquisition refers to marketing outreach to users of related categories, converting related category users into users of this product. For example, shifting from instant coffee consumers to coffee bean consumers.
• Cross-industry new customer acquisition : Compared with cross-category new customer acquisition, cross-industry new customer acquisition has weaker category correlation. For example, the shift from home appliance users to furniture users.

2) Evaluate the market size of each new customer acquisition direction

For different new customer acquisition directions, the first step is to evaluate the specific market size and the possibility of new customer conversion in each direction. As shown below:

The key metrics used here are migration rate (or conversion rate) and market size.

• Migration rate : measures the ease of transferring users from this direction to the target brand category;
• Market size : measures the number of potential new users that can be attracted in this direction.

The joint analysis of the two indicators can effectively measure whether new customers can be attracted in each direction and from which direction to attract new customers.

3) Cross-category and cross-industry penetration

How to achieve cross-category and cross-industry penetration? The analysis and measurement are mainly carried out through the following two aspects:

Analysis of cross-category preferences of new customers

Through this analysis, we can understand which categories new customers of this brand prefer, which helps with cross-category selection.

Analysis of the brand's cross-category penetration

4) Penetration of brand competitors

How to penetrate brand competitors? It mainly involves inflow and outflow analysis and competitiveness analysis. For details on inflow and outflow analysis, please refer to the previous article "Competitive Product Inflow and Outflow Analysis"

Competitive product inflow and outflow analysis

Competitiveness Analysis

The specific analysis content can be found in the figure below:

03. 4W Analysis for Attracting New Customers

Understand which directions of attracting new customers have greater market and are easier to convert. So how do we attract new customers? We analyze through 4W.

1) Analysis of new customer acquisition rhythm: WHEN

Which node should we use to attract new users more effectively?

First, determine the nodes with higher new customer acquisition effects based on the volume and proportion of new customers.

Secondly, evaluate the quality of new customers based on their repurchase behavior in different periods.

2) New customer acquisition target analysis: WHO

Which user groups should we specifically target to attract new users? The following user analyses can be performed:

3) Product analysis: WHAT

Which product is more effective in attracting new customers for a specific brand? You can analyze the product preferences of new customers of the brand:

4) Analysis of new customer acquisition points: WHERE

The last step is to determine at which touchpoints it is better to reach users?

For details on the analysis of touch points, please refer to the previous article "User Touch Point Analysis".

That’s all I’m going to share today about how to conduct new user acquisition analysis on your site. Please stay tuned!

Author: Chief Data Scientist

Source: Chief Data Scientist